Hey, free spells! Isn’t that nice. Let’s take a brief look at magic and spells in the new Expedition.

In Expedition, your character, if generated with a Magic Level, has Magic Points. You regain Magic Points every Event, though some extenuating circumstances may prevent this. You can spend your Magic Points each Event to cast Spells. You can also spend them to Surge spells which may give them greater effects. To cast a spell, you must learn it. Spells and Perks are learned by spending Character Points. However, you must also have a Trainer – a character that you can spend the points on. Your association with these characters may give you benefits when learning spells.

Spells in Expedition are divided into Circles, by general complexity and power. Most spells in Expedition take up MP, though every character that gets to 2nd Level Magic knows every 1st Circle Spell immediately. First Circle Spells are kind of like the cantrips – you don’t learn them, and they don’t cost MP. Only 2nd circle and up spells have to be learned from Trainers – and increasing your magic level will give you a few freebies. Spells in Expedition aren’t super conveniently spammable, but there are magic potions and other ways to get temporary MP if you need it. The idea is that you’ll cast two or three decent spells each combat, by default, and have a few freebie spells along, and have to plan for any more.

Let’s look at some freebie 1st circle spells:

SMITE

MP/Surge Cost: 0/2

Effect: You strike down an enemy with a burst of esoteric force.

 IGNITE

MP/Surge Cost: 0/2

Effect: Ignite allows you to set small flammable objects aflame, such as lighting torches. It can also melt a bit of ice, and heat a cup of liquid. Surging the spell can allow it to ignite larger objects and concentrations of objects, allowing you to melt more ice, heat more cups, and light more torches. The flame is very concentrated and will hardly spread much from what you target. It cannot be used to attack creatures, and is unlikely to do much to structures or vehicles.

Those are a common attack spell, and a common spell in general. The effects of Ignite are fairly minor (it costs no MP after all) and pretty much for flavor. You learn both for free. Now let’s look at a higher circle spell:

PETRIFIER

Average CP Cost: 35

MP/Surge Cost: 3/2

Pivotal Skill: Arcane

Effect: You attempt to turn flesh into stone, slowing down or ultimately completely paralyzing your foe. While petrified, the enemy has +3 Resistance per Threshold result ([C] being +3, [B] being +15) and is considered to have Armor, even if he or she is wearing Light Apparel that offers Impetus. It is possible for the victim’s allies to try chipping away at the rock to reduce the spell duration.

[C] 1-7: The spell backfires on you. You are turned to stone for 2 rounds and cannot take actions, except perhaps entirely mental ones.

[D] 8-11: You Petrify a quarter of the target’s body. He or she cannot take Support Actions for 2 rounds or move, but is otherwise active.

[O] 12-14: You Petrify half of the target’s body. He or she cannot move or take Support Actions for 1d5 rounds and has a -2 penalty to Attack and Damage.

[E] 15-17: You Petrify all of the target. It cannot take actions for 2 rounds.

[B] 19+: You Petrify all of the target. It cannot take actions for 1d5 rounds.

Note: the formatting is what happens when I paste from Word into the WordPress “paste from word” box. There’s actually no spaces between this stuff in the document, otherwise every spell would take up too much space.

Anyway, you roll the pivotal skill as a Threshold Check (2d10+Skill Bonus). You compare it to the Thresholds: [C]atastrophic, [D]ismal, [O]rdinary, [E]xceptional and [B]lessed, and that gives you the effect. If you Surge a spell, you gain a +2 bonus, which can bump you to the next category sometimes. A significant number of spells function this way. As such, Spellcasting might not be for everyone. There are ways to mitigate catastrophic effects, but Threshold is a big part of magic in the game. So if you don’t like the random aspect of the magic (and the Surge mechanic that lets you manipulate it just a touch) then you may not enjoy the magic much. The good news is, every spell is pretty useful in its own way, so you can only learn the ones you want, write them down on an index card or something, and not have to look at any others.

Now, for some audience participation. I’d like for you to suggest any spells you think MUST be in any fantasy game. I’ll take all of your suggestions into consideration when designing spells. Right now, I’m a little tighter on ideas than I’d like to be. So your spell suggestions will be most helpful. Don’t worry about what “Circle” (power level) your spell should be. As an insight into the design process, here are the pivotal skills for spells:

Arcane: The arcane skill governs weird supernatural effects like transformations.

Worship: Governs divine effects. Kind of a big catch-all for “spells the Exalted character will like.”

Intuition: Divination, fortune telling, dousing, mediums, that sort of thing.

Awareness: Any effect that bolsters your existing senses, such as sight, hearing, touch, etc, or projects what you are sensing to someone else, or lets you communicate with someone in a new way.

Expression: Illusions, mind control, and so on, manipulative effects.

Nature: Elemental effects. Fire, water, earth and air manipulation of all kinds.

Athletics: Spells for moving around, throwing things, and so forth.

(This is not the full skill list, by the way. Just those important to spellcasting.)

The Hellmouth is the “iconic” dungeon of the Republic of Andaliel, dubious as that honor is. The Andalians believe themselves masters of their land, building their vast and great capital of Oomash within a vast hollowed-out circle in the cold Hetuku Mountain, and taming the lush Southland that is the fertile and beautiful breadbasket of their nation. This is not mere hubris – they understand their relationship with the land, and they care for it. But the Hellmouth still seeks to punish them for their accomplishments. Heralded by the rising of entrances that seem like toothed maws, the Hellmouth is a living corruption of the element of Earth, one of the cardinal elements in the Adelian Wheel of Life. Read on for more details of this cursed place.

Basic Features And Powers

The Hellmouth is a dungeon many, many levels deep and dark. It is often tight and cramped, only to open up suddenly, seeming to offer relief, but in reality likely springing a trap. The Hellmouth corrupts Earth, and it appears to have the traits of a living entity. While every Archdungeon has an evil, animating presence, the Hellmouth is the only rocky dungeon that is also frightfully alive. The walls, though rocky, may shudder or dribble. Striking the rocks, such as to clear away debris blocking a path, causes a roar and a gust of wind as the dungeon feels pain. Sometimes, the floors and walls will take on the distinctive texture and pliability of flesh or muscle, despite being, to the eye and to the blade, entirely rock.

As with most Archdungeons, the geography of the Hellmouth is impossible. It is much deeper and larger than external observation would suggest. You cannot dig it out of the ground or dig into it from the surface, but yet you can dig a hole from one of its tunnels and arrive at the surface. The Hellmouth fits spaces into the corrupted Earth that would be otherwise impossible. You can turn a corner from a series of ornate stone halls of the old, extinct Dwarven races, and suddenly find the gray and blue stone meshing with brown dirt walls, and exit into a pit of ichor or a bubbling muddy field.

There have been untold numbers of attempts by the foolhardy, unscrupulous and criminal to seek respite from society within the Hellmouth. While most of the construction within are ancient halls of the humans, elves and dwarves, which were swallowed into the land during the Cataclysm, there are some newer passageways made by Adelians and Sorians, which have endured (as the Hellmouth has allowed them to). How many and what they hold is anyone’s guess. Sometimes a Hellmouth spawn has been very convenient for terrible rogues. People have been disposed of by throwing them into the Hellmouth, and few have escaped such cruel fates. Criminals have used the Hellmouth tunnels to navigate quickly and covertly from one area to another, escaping the guards in Oomash’s governing first circle and arriving at the near-barren fifth circle district high above, through a Hellmouth spawn that wound around the Hetuku like a clamp on the capitol city.

While the common sorts of demons, like the hyena-faced Gnoles made entirely out of the essence of despair, cackle and howl throughout the Hellmouth, corrupted earthen beings are more common within the dungeon. Conglomerates of rock and jewels that dash brains with their sharp fists, mud-born slugs that seek to swallow travelers whole, vermin and certain undead, and other mutated terrors wander the place in search of a meal, though they never need one. The Hellmouth’s demonic heart is the only provider they need, but it makes sure to keep them good and hungry.

Somewhere deep inside the Hellmouth is the key to its death. Its “heart,” a “machine” of wretched and incongruous design, part flesh, part rock, part steel, designed by a combination of elven, human and dwarven engineering, perpetuates the energy that keeps the Hellmouth alive. Found and destroyed, it will “kill” the Hellmouth.

Depending on where the Hellmouth spawns, how its tunnels interact with the local population, and what landmarks it decides to represent within its bowels, it could cause chaos, or merely silently consume. Below we will discuss some of the prominent landmarks of the Hellmouth. Each of these could be several levels long and deep and connected to any other landmark or to the surface itself, depending on how the Hellmouth spawns. They are not the only permutations of the Hellmouth. Merely the most common – many rarer, and even more dangerous locations exist within.

The Pit of Wrath

One of the more common landmarks of the Hellmouth is the Pit of Wrath, a network of concentric tunnels and connecting bridges over and around a bubbling pit of oozing black ichor. The substance drips from the walls in places, dribbles from the ceiling, and washes up from the earth in geysers and over-inflated bubbles from the ground, or even the walls. The ichor does not burn, though it looks hot enough to kill at a glance. Adventurers are likely to be covered in the gunk after a bit of exploring, and though it smells and is unpleasant to touch, it seems harmless. But after a while of being coated in it, the traveler grows weary, irritable and strained. The smell turns unbearable and sickening, and the body stiffens from the wretched coat.

The Pit of Wrath is home to black oozes, terrible demonic presences that are like living black ichor. They can take the forms of people that become too consumed by ichor, and in their natural state are like quick, crawling globs of the foul gunk. The longer one stays in the Pit of Wrath, the more the oozes will have to be fought. While not very powerful or durable, they are essentially unkillable. When they are sent back from whence they came, they merely rest and renew themselves in the pit, and return for vengeance. Travelers who descend far enough into the pit should bring soap, water and flames.

The Pit is considered the stomach of the Hellmouth. It is said that at the bottom of the pit, within the pool of ichor, is an extremely rare and precious metal that can only be created in its unique pressures. Furthermore there is much treasure and knowledge to be discovered along hidden passages in the tunnels. While cavernous and seemingly natural, the Pit has hosted numerous unscrupulous researchers who thought they could hide within the Hellmouth unscathed. Their passages, hewn into the wall and covered in tiles and supported by well-wrought stone blocks, may lead to interesting discoveries.

The Diamond Reaches

An ethereal place, lit only by the dim and intermittent blue and purple of various gemstones embedded into its walls, the Diamond Reaches is a complex of caverns and tunnels with walls rich in ore and jewels. Precious stones and rare metals can be found in abundance here. Underground rivers, clean enough to drink and bathe, rush beneath natural bridges and down small waterfalls coming out of walls. The tunnels alternate in direction, some leading further down, and others forward, and some both opposite ways. It is like a scene out of a surreal portrait, a paradisaical landscape.

Yet it is still the Hellmouth. Dangerous creatures lurk the darkness, adapted to the glowing of the gemstones. They spring when they see the light patterns they are so used to change, denoting the passage of a creature blocking that light. They pounce when they hear gems beaten against by tools, the reverberations going through the walls and alerting gross tunneling things that leap from the earth like sharks spring from water. The Diamond Reaches are perhaps the most dangerous of the Hellmouth’s many landmarks. Their allure is the greatest, the environment seemingly the safest. Yet many of the treasures within are not so safe. Certain jewels will vibrate when struck, giving off waves that may confuse and disorient the ones mining them. Some of the ores are unstable and might even explode, while others are poisonous to be near. Those who seek modest gains may be able to leave quickly, quietly and with good money, certainly enough to live humbly a while. But most people never do – they seek awe-inspiring riches, to return with the ransom of the old God-Kings.

Those who pursue such dreams seldom leave the Diamond Reaches alive. And the inhabitants are so delighted for the meal, they consume all of it, such that evidence of previous Expeditions rarely survives. The Diamond Reaches are the limbs of the Hellmouth, and the tunnels reach, tangle and turn in unexpected ways.

The Ocean of Oil

A wretched, downward sloping land within the cavernous maw of the Hellmouth, seemingly dotted with pools and geysers of water, but which are instead a slimy and hot oil. It is a series of overlapping, gently sloping flatlands, like scales on armor or flat mushrooms one atop another on a trunk. The stench of the place is pervasive, and seems to force itself up into one’s head, where it will addle one over time. Harvested oil makes a good fuel, and ancient drilling mechanisms and platforms seem to support the cavern walls in places, and await vigilant for a time when they will be used again.

Mud covers all the ground that is not already covered in oil, making for a slippery descent, and for dirty and wretched combat. To the Adelians, whose religious traditions promote a good amount of cleanliness for the health of the body and soul, the Ocean of Oil is nightmarish, even moreso because the goo is difficult to clean off one’s clothes and body. The warm pits of oil, temptingly clear and pristine as water, are a treacherous ruse for the weary adventurer. Because the place is so dark, there is also the risk of lighting oneself aflame, or turning the cavern into an ocean of flames. Great care must be taken with firearms, magic and lights within this level of the Hellmouth, or it could become an infernal tomb.

Though sometimes, the place is already aflame when one arrives. The Ocean of Oil is considered the bowels of the Hellmouth, and perhaps the blood and death from other areas has gone right into the Oil.

The Halls of Dead Kings

Evidence suggests that in the Lost World, unlike in the egalitarian Adel, no woman was allowed to rule the Old Kingdoms, though some evidence suggests reverence of women, or at least effeminacy, such as in the forms of the Cephaetera Angels (and perhaps ultimately the Adelians themselves, or at least, some of the physiology of Iomadi, Droemedae and Cuporo). Much of this evidence comes from the society of Elves on Adel, which is patriarchal, as well as the artifacts found in the Halls of Dead Kings in the Hellmouth, which are uniform in depicting males in vast statuary, overwrought poetry and liturgy (poorly translated by Adelians) and in other artistic depictions. As such, the hall earned its specific moniker. It is a place where the Kings and only the Kings of the Lost World were interred and worshiped in death as divine figureheads of mankind, their unholy wisdom continuing to corrupt even past their time. The blue and grey stone is perfectly arrayed, and the design of the Halls is more of a grand castle or temple, than that of a mausoleum. To the Adelian’s horror, this is a place of worship.

Regardless, at least this piece of the Lost World is equal in its treatment of all who arrive – it is hostile and well-guarded. Mindless clockwork things seem to patrol the halls, guided on far past the consumption of their fuel by the demonic energy permeating the Hellmouth. It is their duty to forever hide the men interred within, and all of their secrets and worldly possessions with them. Horrific discoveries had been made in the Hellmouth, such as discovering tombs of women and children and animals buried alive with their patron, or mass burials of human sacrifices to the god-kings, slain by the dozens so their blood could soak into the burial pits and feed the kings. Such shocking horrors are quickly studied and then purged, but the Hellmouth seems to store an infinite amount of kings, and an infinite amount of their tortured vassals with them.

Complicated traps line the hallways and rooms, which are otherwise filled with old workstations and materials rooms for the priests who must have maintained it, and performed the grotesque burial rites and sacrifices. Roaring pendulums coming down from the ceiling, cruel spiked plates launching out from the walls to eviscerated passersby, pits trapping adventurers in dark, hidden passages below, and much more await those who do not travel carefully.

This part of the Hellmouth is said to be its head, and contains knowledge, and a glimpse into the horrible minds that designed the Hall, and the blighted souls that are worshiped and maintained within this foul tomb.

Select History of the Hellmouth

A.C. 1420: The Hellmouth is first discovered by an early modern expedition group. Only one person survives the trip, and recounts the horrors within. The Hellmouth appeared near what it is now the city of Impel.

A.C. 1492: Deliberate expeditions into the Hellmouth uncover more of its secrets and claim more lives.

A.C. 1534: The first Death of the Hellmouth. A military expedition by the Aptoa kills the Hellmouth in Andaliel’s lands, at the request of its imperial subjects. The soldiers descend deep into the dungeon, and destroy the demonic engine that powered its heart. This level as they described it has never been found again.

A.C. 1578: The Hellmouth resurfaces, this time in the Southland.

A.C. 1650: The Second Death of the Hellmouth. It is said that local men and women chosen by each village of the Southland as Heroes charged into the Hellmouth and braved its depths, killing its heart again. This legend lives on in liturgy and song, and in literary scholarship, taken as factual, which on some level it probably is.

A.C. 1700-1800: The Intolerable War. As Adel descends into world war, with each Nation seeking both freedom from and revenge against the Aptoan Empire, the Hellmouth lies forgotten, and worms its way to life again, this time within the Hetuku Mountains. Some knowledge about it is lost during this period as the Aptoan Empire crumbles, and its Hierarchs cast some of their discoveries into flames to spite the subjects who now rose against them.

A.C. 1895: The Third Discovery of the Hellmouth, in the Hetuku Mountains. The tunnels become almost a feature of Oomash, as criminal enterprises begin to use them to evade notice and transport black market goods around. Many criminal gangs see a high turnover rate as their forces are lost bit by bit into the Hellmouth, but survivors foster a culture of criminal, adventurous pride in being able to survive those deeps to evade the Guard.

A.C. 1957: The Andani Scandal. The Andani Family where an extremely wealthy line, that had lived for generations in the cold city of Oomash, within the hollow circle cut into the Hetuku prior to the Intolerable War. As some of the first settlers of Oomash, they grew quickly wealthy due to their ingenuity in the passing of goods up from the low lands into the mountain city. The Andani were a very strict family, believing in marriage only for monetary advancement. Their sons and daughters must marry and reproduce for political and financial gain. It is their duty only to perpetuate Andani money, regardless of their own feelings. Unfortunately for Arjuna Andani, he would upset this standard.

In love with a young man from a house of lesser bureaucrats, from whom the Andani would gain nothing, Arjuna rebelled against his parents, and sought to marry his true love. The heads of the Andani house would not have it. Unfortunately for Arjuna, he was a second son – to the unnatural and cruel culture of the Andani, this made him disposable. The Andani family first sequestered him in one of their properties in high Oomash, the less-populated Fifth Ring District near the cavern ceiling. Then, as his lover would discover, he was simply disappeared. This “shame” on the Andani House was cast into the Hellmouth for his disloyalty to the Andani fortunes, and especially for refusing a betrothal.

However, fortunately for him, the story wouldn’t end there. His lover used the few connections he had to try launch an investigation. Ultimately, the Arbiters of the Republic discovered Andani connections to criminal networks, and the vast and widespread usage of Hellmouth tunnels for all kinds of illegal activity. All kinds of criminals and organizations were linked to the Andani fortunes and to the Hellmouth. The Andani were ruined, beset by Guards and Arbiters as they tried to flee. They still stand among the few criminals to ever merit Public Execution in Andaliel.

Arjuna survived in the Hellmouth, growing hungry and near-mad for close to a week, but was rescued from his circumstances by the Guard of the Republic. He would go on to marry his love, and though his family fortunes were destroyed, and he was scarred by his experience, he lived humbly with his husband from then on.

A.C. 1963: The Third Death of the Hellmouth. Fed up with the existence of the Hellmouth in the capital, the Army of the Republic initiated a bold plan, led by Pioneer-General Kalynna Mahabaratam. Expedition Group “Katabasis” was formed, armed with Kasowari “Tunnel Rats,” a golem vehicle that walked on two legs and a had a drill upon its face, and braved the Hellmouth. Once inside, her force dug furiously the tunnels, and did battle with many things, over several weeks, but ultimately they reached the Heart. Using a controlled demolition, they killed the heart and collapsed the tunnels, finally ridding Oomash of the Hellmouth. Everyone hopes this will be its final appearance, as it was its most violent death.

A.C. 2012: Today. Perhaps the Fourth Discovery of the Hellmouth? Perhaps its Fourth Death? Or perhaps, another Era of the Hellmouth, where it will live again for hundreds of years, tempting with its secrets? Where will it appear, what will it look like, what secrets could be found, and who will be the ones to traverse it once again?

The long and short of it, is that I’m in trouble. I’ve hit bottom, and I don’t know what to do. I’ve exhausted all other options. I want to ask for your generosity and empathy. I’m uncomfortable just asking for help. I’m willing to work for it. If you want me to do something, I will try my hardest to do it. I want to earn your help, and to give something back to you. I hope you will read on for my story.

Writing is basically the passion of my life. I didn’t go to college for English because I knew it’d set me up for life. I did it because writing is what I am. It’s my only real talent, and my only great passion. I couldn’t be an engineer, or a lawyer. I’m just not wired that way and I understood that. Every time I sit down to write something whether it be my ~SECRET MANUSCRIPTS~ or stuff for this site, or stories for the tumblr, I basically float off into space. I frame every scene of my life in writing. When I meet people on the street, I think about how they’d fit as characters in a story. I describe landscapes to myself.

You see me on twitter sometimes and I’m either bubbly or I’m down, and probably the latter is when I’m not writing. I love writing. Unfortunately, of late, it’s been hampered by certain things I want to share today. It’s not easy talking to others about this sort of thing. I’ve been writing with my real name for a while now because I want to take ownership of my writing. I’m proud of it, even if it’s not the best thing in the world. So I’ll take the good and the bad of my decision here.

I live in the sticks of Florida. I basically live in the woods. It’s affordable and quiet here, moreso than living in the city, and everything goes pretty okay – if you have a job. A job in the city. And I had a job, right as I was tackling the tail-end of my senior year of college. In fact it was a pretty good job, it gave me time to write and time to say silly stuff on twitter as well as time to graduate with my Bachelor in English. I thought things would go peachy. But then the company went bankrupt before I could get a paycheck. I don’t think I’ll ever see a dime out of my work there. The financiers and investors get the first cut of the compensation when a company goes down, and the little people who are owed something will have to wait more. I’ve tried to find work since then, but unfortunately, there isn’t any to be found. At least not physically.

I live with my family – parents and siblings. We do much better together than apart. Over time, every little tragedy we’ve had has stacked up. Pretty much every member of my family has gone through a few jobs, but we’ve never been retained. I got a kidney stone and had to go to the hospital uninsured. I’m still paying that off, because a second stealth bill came up after I paid the first one. The family car broke down, and we had to shell out rent money to pay it, because otherwise we’re stuck. You need a car in this place to get around. We’re struggling to make ends meet. And through this all, I’ve felt pretty useless. All I can do is write. I wrote through the kidney pain, wrote through the car troubles. I write through life.

So today, what I’m asking, and this is difficult to ask, is not just charity. It’s for a chance. I know if I can help pay off these bills, even for just a little bit, we can pull out of this. I know there’s work to be found, if I had the money to put more gas into the tank to go find it. I’d drive up and down the state if I could. I know there’s chances to be had, if I could get the hospital bill paid. If I could get some of these other bills out of my way. If I could do something for my family. If I could get a little money to put a project forward maybe. If I could get just a little boost, I know I could walk out of the mire.

This is what I’m asking. If you’d donate some money, either through the amazon link, or a paypal donation, or by buying something you want through my affiliate links. I get portions of those sales and every little bit of money that comes in would really help. I want to try to make it up to you and do something for you if you donate. So send me an email, at wyattsalazar@gmail.com, or write a tweet to @WyattSalazar on Twitter, and ask, if you want.

I write stuff. I could write something for you. Got copy to write? I think I can write copy. Got a blog you want some updates for? Tell me about your audience and I’ll whip something up. Want me to write an article where I make fun of your name in seven different ways and then promote your blog at the end of it? I could do that. Want me to write something here on Spirits of Eden about a topic of your choice? Why not. Want me to be your Modern Warfare 3 wingman or play some other games on Steam or something? I’ll play Domination with you for hours and I’ll tell bad jokes all the while we both get camped dead.

Got a campaign you need stuff for? I’ve played D&D 3rd and 4th Edition, GURPS, Warhammer 40k Rpgs, World of Darkness, and some Legend of the Five Rings. I could help you out. I write fiction too. I could put together something to entertain you or maybe inspire you. Need help understanding a piece of English literature? I graduated from that! Want a political rant about social issues? I do those for basically free! These are my strengths, and I hope there’s something in there that would be of value.

I will keep writing this blog, and my other fiction blog. They’ll keep getting updated. Because I write through everything. I’d write through a storm, through the third world war, through a nuclear winter. I like to think that I could always keep sharing my writing with you. But lately I just don’t know if circumstances would allow that. I hope they do. Because just a few weeks ago, I was resigned to losing the domain name I’ve had for this site for going on four years. I had no options and no real time left and I had given up. And then a friend swooped in and paid for it, so I could write on spiritsofeden.com for another year.

I’m eternally grateful. Everything I do on this site, I do because somewhere out there, someone is inspired, someone is entertained, someone is happy because of this site. I want my love of writing to be your own.

I want to keep that going, be it through good times or bad. I don’t want to just ask you for money. I want you to ask something back. I want to try my hardest for you. I want to work just as hard for you as I’ve had to work all this time to try to help my family and my situation. I want you to know that I will give everything I can for this.

Finally here’s a picture of me riding an alligator statue. Those were better times.

Filed under: D&D 4e, Dramallamas, Fluff/Inspiration, Legacy D&D, Meta, Other Systems, RPG, Spirits Of Eden ]]> http://spiritsofeden.com/2012/01/31/i-need-help-an-appeal/feed/ 9 Wyatt AhACmXICMAA6080 http://spiritsofeden.com/2012/01/30/broadcasting-ironman-mode-blog/ http://spiritsofeden.com/2012/01/30/broadcasting-ironman-mode-blog/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:39:11 +0000 Dennis N. Santana http://spiritsofeden.com/?p=4769 ]]>

I’m a fairly big fan of Lets Play. Most of my subscriptions on youtube and viddler are Lets Players that I like. I also like reading the occasional Screenshot Lets Play. I’ve even thought about writing a lets play blog of some game or another, due to my inability to obtain any sort of audio and video equipment. However, that takes too much time I could use to write about indo-asian fox-eared people and their very religious pastoral culture (with a tank and some robots here and there), so I continue instead to partake in the creative fun of other Lets Players, and continually forget to hit F12 on Steam.

Over at the Ironman Mode blog, Zeke Iddon and pals are trying to contribute to the ever-popular and benign Child’s Play Charity by playing through sandboxy and old school games (and some newer games) with certain house rules in place. It is essentially a humorous bunch of screenshot lets plays, and a fun diversion. The writing is fairly charming and the games played are interesting (minecraft and EVE Online are two). I only recently acquainted myself with their site, so I’m not quite aware of their update schedule. Nonetheless, if you want to chip in a few bucks to charity and be amused along the way, you should check out their blog, and maybe follow Zeke on Twitter, though he is a social media luddite. Such shamefur dispray! Maybe if enough people follow him he’ll realize the magnificence of twitter, and make his first bath-tweet.

DEFCON 1, Zeke has tweeted from his bathroom. We are GOOD TO GO.

Over twitter, Quinn Murphy posted a pool of questions he plans to send to some game designers he admires for small interviews, to inform his own views on game design. His questions are pretty interesting, so I thought I would answer them. Perhaps on your own blogs, or if you have none then in the comments of this one, you can try to answer the questions as well. We all have different ideas about game design, so please note, these are only my own.

When is a roleplaying game successful, from a perspective of play?

I think it is successful when you make use of the majority its rules to play to its expectations and enjoy yourself while doing so. When the rules of the game actively shape how you play the game, and you return to the game precisely for this experience, then it is successful. Of course different people will have different wants from a game and that is fine.

What should an RPG do & how do you know you’ve done it?

The game should package those expectations I talked to above, and deliver them. It should set a target, find an audience, and deliver to them the play experience that they want using its rules. I don’t really enjoy FORGE-style storytelling games. But they package a certain experience for their audience, of being a game where you use minimalistic rules to primarily create stories, rather than face “challenges” or overcome obstacles in a mathematical and logical framework. I enjoy games which have rules governing various granular aspects of a character’s creation, strengths, weaknesses, advantages, resources. I enjoy not only telling a story within these constraints, but also overcoming obstacles and challenges in them. I like games like Rogue Trader, where I create a character within a setting whose creation and play is granular, composed of rules elements which “map” to both the story and the gameplay. The rules inform the stories, and provide drama I can overcome by knowing those rules, and employing them to the best of the character’s ability, in the correct circumstances.

I suppose you know you’ve done it if you playtest a lot, and your groups enjoy it, and you release your game and people enjoy it. There will always be minor houserules here and there I think, but if people are enjoying your game for the experience it brings, it’s working. I reach for Rogue Trader to play Rogue Trader, to explore the universe of warhammer 40,000 as an incredibly rich and powerful space merchant on the edges of the known universe. It delivers that experience, it has a certain texture, and I go to it for that, and I enjoy it for that. I don’t need to radically alter that game.

This extends even to games like GURPS, that make it their goal that you return to them for ideas that other games just can’t capture, and that you build your own package with them. That being said, I prefer games with more focused experiences than entirely catch-all modular systems. I wouldn’t use GURPS to play Rogue Trader. I think right now to be really successful you have to produce a game that lavishes attention upon one setting and limited assumptions.

When does an RPG fail (if ever) as a system? What are common problems as you see them?

Personally I think an RPG fails as a system when the rules begin with the assumption that players will not naturally want to engage the concepts and must be forced to. For example, I think for a “storytelling game,” White Wolf games probably have too many rules and moving parts. Some rules engage the story in really weird ways: Vampire The Masquerade 20th Anniversary has a dice pool system where rolling too low will take successes from your pool, so acquiring more dice in your pool isn’t an actual straight growth in your character’s talents or magic – in fact it can be argued that as you gain more dice, and consequently tackle more difficult challenges, your chance of success decreases. Their games want you to think about the story, but it uses very constricting methods to enforce it – Promethean is a game about vulnerability and isolation that enforces both themes with rules that make you vulnerable and despised by other people. Your powers are circumstantial and weak, and your very presence can generate roaring mobs that will kill you. Personally, I consider that a failed design.

Sometimes games’ rules are also far out of the scope it’s trying to present. Reviled examples include FATAL, which is far too complicated for a game that is essentially just a really misogynistic and puerile fantasy game (more than usual). More complicated elements don’t directly lead to increased simulationism. Nobody should have to do trigonometry and solve fractional equations to create or play a character in a game. I consider that a failure too.

Some people might also suggest that an RPG system that failed to reach or keep its audience engaged would be a failure. Economically speaking there’s too many factors to really say “the system killed it” but you could probably make this argument, especially if the game had a lot of commercial muscle behind it.

What is your favorite game you’ve designed? What lessons did you learn building it?

Some fans will be disappointed to hear it is not Incongruent Future. Rather, I think the game that was most fun for me to design was High Score because it had a weird mechanic, and it was very different from anything I tried to do before. It taught me that just having a mechanic that was kinda clever and represents some kind of challenge isn’t enough to have a game. In High Score you essentially “did things” to rack up points. This mechanic however felt divorced from anything that was happening in the game, and while there was a goal, it wasn’t a very driving one, and was not really that conducive to creativity. It was essentially a race, and it didn’t matter much what anyone chose to do, just how high they rolled.

What is your favorite game that someone else designed? What do you like most about it? What 1 thing would you change (if any)?

I really like the Warhammer 40,000 RPGs by Fantasy Flight Games. I admire them for the way that they managed to convey the game setting in the mechanics. Warhammer 40,000 is grim, brutal and oppressive, while also being patently ridiculous. The game mechanics really capture how each of the setting focuses (Inquisitorial agents in Dark Heresy, the eponymous Rogue Traders, and the Space Marines of the Deathwatch) works, both mechanically and in the narrative. Warhammer 40,000′s rpgs convey the setting, and even the minis wargame, in such a fascinating way.

Inquisitorial Agents are socially powerful when lording over the citizenry, but they are just as physically vulnerable, and they must win by careful planning (racking up circumstantial bonuses) and wise use of their abilities, because a single bolter round to the center of mass will kill them. The Rogue Trader is so grand that wealth (currency in “throne gelt” being an actual penny-pinching system in Dark Heresy) means nothing to them. They have so much money that it is abstracted into a Profit Factor that can make up billions of thrones. Rogue Traders engage in ship combat, command vast crews, and are almost completely above the law. They are stronger, more influential and exist in an entirely different place than the Dark Heresy characters, and everything about their part of the game reflects this. Meanwhile the Space Marines are nigh-invulnerable warriors who genetically descend from even more nigh-invulnerable warriors, and possess certain traits and demeanor that comes from this. They’re not really human, and the way their personalities and origins stack up is different, and expressed in the rules. The Chapter-creation mechanics for Deathwatch are amazing. Each game manages to wind its flavor and mechanics impressively tight, while still giving players and their characters tons of freedom to play in a lot of different ways.

If I could change anything, it’d likely be a few niggling rules issues. Some of the mechanics are a little convoluted (how does Medicae work again?) and could be simplified – medicine really doesn’t matter that much as per-combat healing because one or two good shots will probably kill you. So if you don’t die during a combat, you might as well regain your Health after it, because any kind of attrition is really out of scale to the danger of the game.

When is an idea/concept good enough to turn into an RPG? What makes something “gameable”?

That’s tricky. Personally when I think of games, I think of frameworks and resources. If an idea can at least become a win or lose resource based game, then, well, it’s a game. Round up some players and play. If an idea can be expressed in a more complicated system framework, incorporating multiple strategies and factors expressed as granular units of rules, then all the better. I think there’s a lot of ways to make the concept into an RPG, some of which will evoke certain concepts better than others. Unless the concept is really esoteric, probably anything can become some kind of RPG, as long as there is some kind of conflict to resolve, resources to manage, strategy to employ, or preferably, all of them.

* * *

Well, all of that sounded a bit more pretentious than I wanted it to be, honestly. But those are my answers.

(No release date yet, but nearly all the character bits are complete. The GM and Monster sections will, as usual for me, be more complicated to serve. I’m shooting for a spring release of the playtest though.)

A long time ago I wrote an RPG called NAA D6. It was fairly playable if a bit esoteric in places. I liked a lot of the rules of that RPG, and since getting out of that minimalist rut I’d thought to trap myself in, I’ve brought back some of those rules. But today isn’t really about that. Instead, I’m going to post the “tutorial chapter” called “Character Generation Steps” which will summarize the character generation, then post a few examples of what you’ll be looking at in some of the sections. There will be no commentary on it, because I feel I’ve more or less exhausted my design commentary at this point. We sort of know the general goals here by now, and it feels like in each of these post I try to find a fifth leg on a cat for something to say. So here we go.

WARNING: Sword Girls visual spoilers at the end of the post. (Like you care.)

This section will guide you through the basic steps for building your Expedition character.

Step 0: Try to have a character in mind when you read the following section, to inform your decisions. What is this person like? What are his or her talents and goals? Is he or she well known, affluent? Has he or she had a hard life?

Step 1: Choose a character’s Titles. There are three types of Titles: Origin, Talent and Combat. Each will give your character basic but pivotal abilities in the game, as well as provide some inspiration for your character’s story.

Step 2: You have 100 Character Points at the start of the game, and can use these to buy Perks. You can only buy the first ability of any given Perk at character creation. Select Perks you find interesting and might develop in the future. You might want to list how your character earned his or her Perks, but it’s not necessary. Think of them as part of your character’s intrinsic abilities.

Step 3: You start the game with 100 Wealth to buy your starting equipment with. Try to spend as much of this wealth as possible. This is the equipment your character starts the game with – he or she might have inherited it, requisitioned it in the military, found it lying around, or just bought it. Once you’ve spent your starting wealth, you can do whatever you wish with the rest of the Wealth granted by your Titles. (If you have the Affluent Title you begin with 500 instead.)

Step 4: Wrap up your character by writing down the benefits of his or her Stamina Level and Magic Level. Your Titles offer boosts to each of these. Take note of your remaining Wealth and Reputation. Both of these scores can be spent within the game to gain benefits. Your character is essentially complete.

* * *

So let’s slap together some titles and perks and equipment really quick here.

I’ll be making a divine-like character that wears armor and hits people and maybe has a gun if I can swing it.

EXALTED (Origin)

Basic Values: 2 Stamina, 2 Magic, +20 Reputation, +50 Wealth.

Favored Skills: +2 Culture, +2 Strength, +2 Worship, +2 Expression

Life of Worship: You were born into, brought into, or volunteered for a life of religious devotion from a very young age. You are an ordained member of a religious order, initiated into its mysteries. You know divine magic, and one might say you even have a guardian spirit looking out for you. Once per event, you can reroll a single failed roll and use the new result. Once per expedition, at an appropriate time chosen by the GM, your character has vague prophetic vision or dream of future events (the vision must be of something that has a chance to come true), which gives you an Edge point in addition to the cryptic information.

The all-important Exalted title gives not too shabby stamina, magic, rep, wealth and other goodies.

AUTHORITY (Talent)

Basic Values: +1 Stamina

Favored Skills: +1 Awareness, +1 Expression

Great Authority: You are well versed in laws and politics, and can count on your connections to render services to you for less personal cost. Your words, promises and person go farther than others. Boons cost you 10 less Reputation than normal: so Minor Boons cost you 15 Reputation, Major Boons cost you 40, and Greater Boons cost you 90. You can gain two Greater Boons in a single Expedition, if you have the Reputation to afford them, rather than the limit of one. You earn +1d5 Reputation whenever a Deed would award you Reputation.

I’m a magical religious figure, so please listen to me when I ask for something.

SENTINEL (Combat)

Infinite Vigil: You wear the largest armor you can get your hands on, and stay in the fight for as long as you possibly can. You have +10 Armor and +1 Resistance in Heavy Apparel. Bonuses you gain last 1 extra round.

I really want to hear heavy armor even if I can’t afford the very bestest ones at character creation.

SUPPORTER (Perk)

[50 CP]: If you’re a Support character in an event, your successful Support rolls give a +1 bonus to Active characters in addition to reducing penalties by 1

I like being helpful in some situations more than taking charge, and there’s some stuff for me!

IMPROVE MAGIC (Perk)

[50 CP]: You gain +1 Magic Level. The maximum Magic level is 10.

Now both my stamina and my magic levels are at 3. This is nice, though not strictly necessary.

There is actually only one way to get level 10 stamina or level 10 magic, and never both.

Now for my equipment. I have 150 wealth.

A sword, because why not?

Everyone should have a gun and smashy bit, it should be the law because it is so cool.

Also everyone starts the game with some free bullets.

I use my remaining wealth for the cheapest heavy armor and the cheapest clothes.

Normally the Greatcoat isn’t all that incredible, but with Sentinel, it’s right up there with armor that costs three times as much as it does. And if I really want to wear the greatcoat all of my adventuring career, I can improve its Quality, which will grant it a few boosts. Quality items are pretty rare, so our little-coat-that-could would likely be as good as plate armor worn by the evil henchmen of that endgame necromancer lich thing we’re gonna be fighting.

As for what Concealed means, since you’ve seen it twice: it means that the enemy can’t judge whether you’re armed or armored well if you’re using concealed-type armor and weapons. So if you’re walking into a situation where it’s imperative that you look unarmed, concealed stuff is the way to go. You wouldn’t think someone in a big coat is that well protected. Of note though – Heavy size weapons cannot be concealed, so when I buy the weapons, I’ll choose to make it all Light size. Light and Heavy is really a matter of which Perks you want to buy. Heavy and Light weapons have different Perks. Oh, we also get some Free rations, water and salves to begin the game but we don’t care about that.

Well, that’s everything I wanted to show you today.

Hmm, what am I picturing here…I guess it’s roughly this.

Luthica from Sword Girls Card Game. Art is from the Follower card "Luthica, Enemy of the Church." Which is kind of ironic I guess.

Adelians have collected untold thousands of artifacts from the Lost World, but none seem to shine light toward the enigmatic origins of the Human servitors known as Cephaetera, “Coordinators.” Some Adelians believe that Humans loathed their own forms and sought a perfection of shape in their creations, and this might have resulted in the quizzical forms of the coordinators, the elves, and perhaps even other prototypical humanoid races that could’ve been precursors to modern Adelians. Such theories are often regarded with widespread controversy. But one must wonder why the central nerve engine of a collective of genocidal machines has a need to appear beautiful, and as human-like as the Adelians and Elves themselves. Athael is one such interesting specimen. Perfect of form, but bearing a ruinous power over the Angels.

Origin

While the ultimate origin and conception of the Angels is a mystery lost to time thanks to the Cataclysm, Athael’s own origin is not such. It is one of the few Cephaetera known by the Adelians to be active, and who has survived various skirmishes with expedition groups, city garrisons, mage research teams and other Adelians whom it has met. Athael was first discovered within an ancient temple of the humans in Emderuer, on the edge of the Noshiki wasteland. A group of delvers braved the depths of the site, through crumbling and upturned hallways, sliding down paths where stone had twisted into spiral, or climbing up pathways that were once perfectly straight. Within the vast depths of the temple, the group uncovered an area where the rock walls became pristine, reflective metal. As though stepping into an entirely different world, they found themselves in a mechanical hub, where various broken-down pods held dead Cephaetera, their bodies long since rotted away by time.

One pod remained untouched, however. The delvers thought to destroy it – but unfortunately for them, they were not the only ones with an eye towards the temple. The group had been stalked by Diesel Society operatives, who wanted to claim the technology in the temple for their nefarious organization. A battle ensued within the chrome halls of the undertemple. The two groups fought viciously, the delvers wanting nothing more than the destruction of a dangerous artifact, while the diesel society lusted after the secrets it might hold. During the battle, the pod was unknowingly activated. Ancient sensors and logic nodes brimmed with renewed life. The liquid in the pod drained, and calibration needles sunk into the Cephaetera’s body at key points, restarting its elemental core, stimulating its synthetic muscles, shock-starting its organ systems.

The glass on the pod blew open, and Athael stood again. Both groups turned their attention to it – the delvers firing upon it, and the diesel society pleading for it to lead them to a new age of machines. Athael quickly matched their bioform and energy field readings to the vast, collected knowledge of the Angels, kept safe within the orbiting satellites. In an instant it knew that it was faced with Adelians. Moments later, it walked over their mutilated bodies and out of the temple, standing on little but a rock from its own past and overlooking an alien present. There was much work ahead of it.

Appearance

Most angels have completely robotic forms, but Athael and Cephaetera like it are much more insidious. Their bodies are humanoid, deceptively androgynous and usually slim, with often startlingly beautiful faces and quite realistic synthetic heads of hair, and deep eyes that Adelians would be fooled into thinking suggest a soul. The body is covered in a rubber-like polymer suit, with a high neckline and long sleeves. These are not clothes, but a layer of skin – ripped off, there is a pallid, wet, somewhat squishy underlayer, and underneath is the first layer of robotic plating and mechanisms. The face often has skin off-color with the rest, either too pale for the black polymer or too dark for the squishy secondary layer, so a Cephaetera without Adelian clothes is likely to be discovered quite quickly for what it is. However, there have been reports of more expertly and naturally disguised Cephaetera. Athael is not one of them – it does not want to socialize with Adelians.

Athael is a quicker, lighter-bodied Cephaetera, its limbs slender and its form elegant. Most Cephaetera are such, though a few are distinctly built and physically imposing. Regardless of its size, Athael could pick up an adult Adelian by the neck and throw it across a room like it were raising a newspaper off the floor and binning it. Its face has two green, almost jewel-like eyes. Upon close examination they seem to adjust, as though the cornea and pupil were composed of shifting pieces of glass. Its long pale hair looks normal, save for the tiny technological ornaments hanging from certain tufts. These little globes are actually environment sensors that help regulate Athael’s body temperature depending on the climate. Athael has no ears, so it could not pass for a Iomadi without a pair of fake ears of some animal or another, and it also has no tail.

Personality

Athael is a callous, mechanically-minded creature with only a single directive – the extermination of all Adelian life, and the reversing of the changes brought about by the cataclysm. While both tasks are seemingly impossible, and neither of them will bring the Humans back from extinction, Athael is bound to them to its very core. There is no action Athael can take that does not put it a step closer to these ultimate goals. It is efficient, ruthless and highly intelligent. It has no capacity to care or empathize with Adelians. Each is a conglomerate of proteins that has failed to arrange itself in the specific genetic code of a human being. While the Adelians might look like its old masters, that has never and will never matter.

Its subordinate machines are also just that: subordinates and tools. While some Cephaetera manage to develop a sort of bond with the constituent machines of the great Angel hierarchy, Athael has none. Each exopoda, regardless of its bio-synthetic brain and high thinking functions, is just a tool. If it is told to, it will launch itself against the enemy and be destroyed. Its loss will not be mourned, and its victory not celebrated. If necessary it will be scavenged or cannibalized to build a more effective machine. Athael is aware only of itself and its directive. Even its own body is disposable if necessary.

Abilities

As an Angel Cephaetera, Athael has a number of incredible weapons at its disposal. In its basic form, its svelte body hides a pair of small jump jets on its back, assisted by foot jets. It has arrowlance railguns hidden in each of its arms. Unlike every other angel, the Cephaetera is capable of ancient magic, assisted by its internal core. At a moment’s notice it can raise shields to absorb attacks, consume its enemies in fireballs, or launch a barrage of arcane missiles.

Athael can also link its body to a sturdy suit of ancient Powered-Armor, which gives it a pair of rockets for powered flight, as well as two brimstone (plasma) cannons underslung to its arms. The powered armor adds girth and strength to the Cephaetera’s body, as well as supplying additional power to its core and processing abilities.

Boasting an internal uplink to the remnants of the human Satellite network in orbit around Adel, the Cephaetera has access to some surveillance functions, a connection to the remnants of the Human Internet that serves as it vast knowledge base, and it can theoretically call upon a low-orbit ion cannon strike. This last feature requires the additional processing ability of various other angelic servitors. Furthermore, the satellite’s position has to be recalibrated, a time-consuming process which Athael must remain focused to coordinate. In the middle of a battle, this may be difficult to do.

Of course, Athael also has a small army of angel robots to help it, mostly the low-walking exopoda spider drones. Should it manage to find more Angel vaults, or a way to crash at least a few of the untold thousands that still float perilously and aimlessly in the Adelian stratosphere, it could be quite a dangerous commander.

Goals

Athael’s goals are simple: the elimination of Adelians and the changing of the climate. Athael remembers a world with a horrendously polluted atmosphere, boiled oceans, alien synthetic plants that were the only living things capable of existing on the depleted soil, and vast inky clouds covering a purple-ish sky. This is the world where the Humans painstakingly created it, and it is gone. Perhaps there are still ways to slowly return it. Though this will ultimately do no good, it is what Athael knows – the environment needs “maintenance” and many systems all over what is now Adel are broken. It must uncover them and fix them. Along the way, any Adelians who intrude upon its task will be dealt with brutally.

Advanced But Dependent

Villages in Adel blend in with the wilderness. Often, those villages have occupied the same land since time immemorial. Each of those villages is a small but unique people with a vast history that most Adelians consider worth protecting and cherishing. Cities are not like that. Cities and towns were established as people met at crossroads, as explorers left their ancestral homes, and as cultures began to blend. Cities allow for goods to flow from various corners of the world, by offering protection, resupply and shelter to masses of traders. They were established outside nature, and they keep a firm line between themselves and nature. They cannot integrate their larger homes, paved or cobblestone streets, sewer systems and other amenities with nature, and they require their large size to serve their function as havens for commerce.

The way of life in the city is one of commerce, of wages, of exchanges between people who have different wants and needs than those of the villagers. Cities foster trade, as well as the growth of knowledge, through specialized education and training. Villagers are fairly educated and some even quite intelligent for their circumstances – but it is unheard of that a villager can live his or her entire life studying, and writing books, and focusing only on the intellectual. It is rare for a villager to be able to focus only on the arts, or the sciences. Every villager must labor for the community to thrive. On their days off, and when their seasons end and there is less of the essential labors to perform, they might pursue other interests. But it is a given that foraging, hunting, farming, hauling and crafts must be done, for the community to survive.

Cities are advanced in many ways, yet in the most key way they are still dependent on the smaller units of civilization. For a city-slicker, it is difficult to grow food. Food must be purchased, and those from whom it is purchased must acquire it from somewhere else. So the cities need villages, with which they can trade for food. Many cities have farm lands near them, but essentially these farm lands are villages – their laborers live by village ways, and expect their traditions never to be disturbed or upturned. Cities need the villages and mutual respect is needed for them to survive and thrive. Villages are the breadbasket of the world, and however great and vast a city is, it cannot survive alone.

Socially Stratified Living

In a village, everybody shares resources which, by ancestral compacts, they believe to be the property of the Guardian Spirit (whoever that Spirit happens to be at any given period of time, owns the land, the food, and so on). The Guardian Spirit then shares the bounty with the villagers equally. It is essentially a form of religious socialism, because the Guardian Spirit generally has no need for any of the things the villagers declare to be its property – all it needs is the worship, respect and security it finds living with the villagers. Many spirits are curious about worldly trinkets, and enjoy being well-dressed and aptly fed, but there isn’t a Guardian Spirit who would hoard its villager’s riches; it would only bring ruin upon itself. So essentially, everybody shares what they need or want and they go about life without much sense of material turmoil.

Cities in Adel do not operate on this, though there are some veins of socialistic thought running through them. In a city, you must engage in commerce to acquire goods. You must perform a service that others, who have what you want or need, find important enough to give you some of their goods or wealth (in coin, the purchasing potential) in return. You are not entitled to habitation or to food – albeit, Adelians have a concept of honorable charity and will often allow a stranger some shelter from rain and some food, though not usually for very long, and not usually for repeat visits. You earn your keep by contributing to the economy and development of the city, its culture and arts, its people and projects. Your part of the whole in a community is not inherently important as it is in a village. This can come as a shock for villagers who relocate.

The truly Wealthy in civilization got to be that way either through guile, through fortune, through inheritance from an ancient and storied line, or through underhandedness. Their success is replicable, but not easily so. Their ancestors or predecessors might have discovered key routes and goods to trade, or exploited old laws, or established services at key periods of time to maximize their fortunes, and hand them down along the family. In short it takes some effort, whether good or bad, and a fair bit of luck and guile to become rich. Fortunes may wane, and newly-monied folk may rise. But this is likely to be a slow process requiring much dedication – there are no easy ways to wealth, not even for the adventurous.

Since wealth cannot be achieved overnight, there are stratified economic classes – commoners either living within their means or dreaming big, petite-bourgeois who like to believe that they are on their way to glory and riches, and the truly elite who need only work to maintain or grow their already large fortunes. Individuals deal with these affairs quite differently. Some people are nasty about it, hating the upper or lower class, while others treat everyone the same, and still more wish to share the virtues of their ways with those unaware. Many Adelians believe in a concept called “Kripaa” or “neighborlyness” where people in a city or town try to treat each other well. A wealthy person may throw parties where anybody is invited, or personally invite poorer neighbors to a meal – while another might be insular and nasty toward common folk. A poor person might be courteous and inviting of a wealthier one, or may be rude and violent at the mere sign of wealth.

It is rare to find completely hungry and homeless folk in Adelian cities, despite this – except perhaps in Periterim and Emderuer, who are far less charitable than other Nations. In most of Adel, there are a variety of programs intended to help people who are completely down on their luck. The military and guards are always happy to put someone to work, and there is a form of welfare paid in scrips of paper that can be sought at the government office, credits that can give someone temporary food and shelter. The government office is always ready to give people work, usually either fairly dangerous work requested by affiliates like the Archeological Society, or hard labor in maintaining roads or building structures.

Political Power, Rule of Law

Adel is not an iron-age lawless wasteland. Might does not make right. Slaying a dragon does not entitle one to a princess to marry, nor to a political title. It will make one popular, should the deeds be brought to light. And it will certainly, if the dragon was an evil creature, bestow reputation and good character upon the slayer. But ultimately, it is not an act which redefines power. It is not a politically crowning achievement, even if it might be a socially uplifting one.

In villages, law is traditional. Disputes are settled not by courts but by the community. Village crime is fairly low, and when it occurs it is often petty theft or non-lethal brawls. Villagers grow up believing themselves a needed part of a community, and their wants and needs are generally looked after by everyone. They are like one large extended family in this sense, so there’s rarely any fatal or cruel crime among them. When there is it is often from an outside source. Regardless, the Guardian Spirit of a village tends to investigate and resolve crimes, and settle disputes there, and law is not codified.

Civilization has laws, written, amended and arbitrated by people specially trained for the task. Villages have a few guards along with their able-bodied hunters and foragers to try to protect them; towns and cities have whole outposts of the national military, ranging from a simple barracks to a whole fortification. Guards alone do not uphold the law. Since the Intolerable War, which led to the militarization of civilian police, introducing the concept of the “guard” forces, the power of Guards to enforce the law alone has been reduced. By his or her self, a Guard can only detain a civilian for a day. Their power is shared with the Arbiters, part lawyer and part investigator. An Arbiter examines a case, and once brought in, the sentence for the detainee may be increased so that Arbiter can have enough time to investigate safely. The Guard and Arbiter work together to collect evidence and present a case. As for the detainee, he or she is represented by the Arbiter Superior of a territory, and his or her staff, who guarantee certain basic rights and scrutiny to the accused, and insure the due process of justice and law.

Each Nation has its own structure of political power that should be kept in mind.

Andaliel: Andaliel is a congressional republic, a democracy, governed by the Exalted Congress. The Exalted Congress is directly voted for every five years by people from several different “districts” of Andaliel, often vaguely-defined political units meant to give the whole of the Nation proper representation. The Exalted Congress’ first duty once elected is to select a President of Congress from among the various governors, mayors, arbiters, or other political agents who are popular and trusted by the people. The President cannot be selected from the Congress itself. The President has certain powers, and the Congress and Arbiters’ Courts have certain powers, and together they rule. Each town has a mayor, and each city has a Governor. Each town and city also has Arbiters and Guards. Villages, on the other hand, have no such political agents.

Emderuer: Emderuer is an Imperial power, ruled by the Emperor Under The Sun. His word is law, and as such, law is often difficult to amend, or to update for modernity. The Emperor has various representatives in the different parts of Emderuer. While Emderuer functions much like any other nation, with Guards and Arbiters and such, the law is much stricter in Emderuer. Petitions and requests are oft ignored, and the government is sluggish to act or react. Once known as the Aptoan Empire, and one defeated by the whole of the world, Emderuer is a shell of its former self.

Periterim: Periterim is ruled by an oligarchy and is essentially a Plutocracy. The rich control the land, enact its laws, and divide the nation among themselves. It is in their best interests to work together to grow and maintain their wealth, and control their people so that things don’t get too out of hand – but if one rational actor ever believes this state of affairs is not profitable, chaos could possibly ensue. Periterim is the least socially conscious nation, with a coin’s toss chance of the government helping out anybody, and little in the way of social aid for the poor, or respect for them.

Sargasso: Sargasso is a monarchy, but a more organized government than Emderuer. There are a variety of lower level officials, known as “nobles,” who have some say in their local affairs, such as Dukes and Duchesses, Marquises and Marchionesses, and so forth, following complicated lines of succession. While their political genealogy is confused, their powers are not. These officials share some powers under the Queen’s supreme control, with the Order of the Seraphim and the Church of Sargasso also having some say, and generally, if one needs help, there are plenty of ways to get it soon. Sargasso’s government is more responsive than Emderuer’s or Periterim’s, and also kinder and more respectful to its people.

Vedaria: Vedaria is essentially a dictatorship. Though it was at first ruled by a long line of Viziers, powerful Warlords who united the Nation, the Viziership has as of 10 years ago been upturned by a coup d’etat orchestrated by Magdalena Keehl, who is now the People’s Supreme Caretaker, or dictator. Unlike the Viziers, Magdalena does not consider herself a Warlord. She is an intellectual, and has brought Vedaria to the forefront of the world stage with new ideas, new organization, and even drafted a bill of rights that limits her own powers and those of her officials. It is also immutable if she is alone – it requires the cooperation of Magisters, appointed officials in each district of the Nation. Magdalena was inspired by Andaliel in some ways, but finds it flawed in others. Her restructuring of government has made Vedaria a much better place to live, and its people happier than they have ever been. The government responds to them fairly, at a good pace, and there is social welfare.

Western Sea Powers: In the Western Sea, we have two smaller nations with some unique governments. Cressia is ruled by a Triumvirate of powers from different geographic regions. The Council of the Plains, the Throne of the Mountain and the Seat of the Sea are three distinct political and regional units, and each of their representatives (the Council as a whole, the King of the Mountain, and the Seer of the Sea) rules not only their own territory, but the whole of the land together, if all works well. If not, then you have the Cressian Civil War as happened a few years back. Oerst is ruled by a union of Dragons and Adelians. The King of Oerst is bonded to the Queen of Dragons, and while they model their system on Sargasso, all nobility in Oerst must be legitimized by a coupling with a Dragon. This is a unique, long-standing tradition.

Eastern Sea Powers: The Eastern Sea is a lot more unruly, with numerous smaller island nations and no very large powers. While the Treize Archipelago once adhered to the Council of Twelve, which consisted of the twelve largest island-nations ruling the Eastern Sea together, they have of late splintered and battled, and even made allies of the pirates and brigands who, themselves, are political units operating out of forlorn and previously uninhabited island territories. However, of late, in the North near Andaliel, the democratic nation has been at work helping to protect and mold a growing power in the Eastern sea, the snowy sea nations of the Fern Archipelago, which are a single constitutional monarchy.

Example: The City of Impel

Location: Impel is a city in the central region of Andaliel, just on the edge of the Southland. As such it is a crossroads for trade and travel to all of Andaliel, but particularly, the breadbasket of the Nation. The Southland is a vast and rich territory full of villages who grow crops that most of the northern territories, with their harsher climates, find more difficult to grow. The capital imports a lot of food, for example, on fast autowagons and airships that can deliver it on time for citizens to consume. As such, Impel is an incredibly important point for both South and North lands. Impel occupies a broad plain between the delineating forests of the south, and the rolling hills that make up a lot of the north.

Layout: Impel is a massive city divided into four coterminous quadrants, as a whole surrounded by defensive walls. There are four gates into the city, at each of the cardinal directions. Adelians believe this layout to bring fortune, and many of their cities are arranged in such a manner, though superstitions about city-building abound. There is a small barracks at each of the gates and four towers, one at each connecting corner of the ramparts. There are a few open plazas near the entrances, around which homes and businesses are arrayed. Likewise, the more profitable spaces are those near the main roads directly from each gate, where various grand storefronts call in fresh visitors funneled down the main roads.

Architecture: Impel began as a series of close, square habitations built from clay bricks. It has since expanded its size and many of the oldest homes have been reinforced with harder stone or concrete block. The city as a whole has a very earthen, sun-baked look to its buildings. Many are simple in shape, but have decorations and engravings such as calligraphy, flourishes and contoured corners and edges. Some buildings have cupolas, especially the larger ones, and some of the more lavish private homes, however small, will have a private shrine or prayer garden. Small one or two story storefronts and homes and small visitor’s shelters tend to flank the main roads, with larger and bars and inns near the plazas.

As mentioned before, there are a few open plazas, broad spaces with gardens and dome kiosks where passersby can sit out the sun or rain and admire beautiful flowers or majestic local (and some, not quite so local) plants and birds. The city pays its respects to nature by promoting it even within the walls that mean to keep it out. These soft-earthed, clear areas break up the comparatively tight and narrow main streets and roads and are a favored destination for performers. Most of the plazas are ringed by Inns, bars and shelters where visitors can sleep or seek all manner of entertainment.

City Features: As the “Crown Jewel of the Northeast” (in a continental sense – to Andalians it’s smack dab in the center) Impel has many facilities common to most developed cities and large towns in Adel. It also has many that aren’t so common. Examining a few, we can relate the larger story of Adelian planning and community.

Public Bathhouse: There are a couple of fairly roomy public bathhouses in Impel, often divided into “cold water” and “warm water” bathhouses. The bathhouses have unisex and segregated bathing options, but no really private options – you’ll be taking to the water along with a variety of folk. But Adelians as a whole are a lot less conflicted about their bodies than most cultures an observer might know – they are not too shy about sharing a bath. However, for those that are, there are some for-profit private bathhouses in business as well, which have exclusive, rented bathrooms.

Storefronts: From Zuri Makavana‘s Potion Shop, to an affiliate of the Elster-Klaus Gunsmiths, various stores in Impel exists to cater to every whim, and some, to all whims at once. The prime spots are along the main road, but hidden gems can be found through the alleys, and special stores may even open up only at night. A variety of Inns, Bars and “private venues” also exist which cater to the weary traveler, parched visitor, and lonely wanderer.

Bazaar: Like bathhouses, this is another common feature to Adelian cities and towns. The Bazaar is a large plaza devoted exclusively for traders large and small to set up their wagons, kiosks or carpets and peddle their wares, trading, buying, selling and hoping to score a profit. Most bazaar spaces are small, but Impel is a major trading city, and its grand bazaar has wares from every corner of the Adelian continent, and from each of the two Seas.

Guilds: Impel has guild houses where trades and professions of all kinds are practiced, and trainees can earn their licensing and the support of experts craftsfolk, doctors, or what have you. Not all places have all guilds. Some towns are more known for their smithing than for their medicine, and so on, but Impel houses every profession and trade one might imagine, due to its demand for these necessary services – and the demand from nearby towns.

Theater: Impel has a few competing theaters. For a Theater these days, it’s not just about plays, acting and instruments, but also about technology. Along with the usual epic plays, romance plays, orchestral concertos and hymnodies, Theaters now have a few unique shows. With the advent of phonographs and mutoscopes, and Adelian affection and wonderment at these pieces of technology, big city Theaters have had to innovate a bit to defeat their competitors.

The theaters in Impel offer “picture shows” which are given in mutoscope boxes. The box holds one or two people in a seat, and together they watch a moving picture show through a pair of binocular scopes. Picture shows are very popular and come in all sorts of popular genres, with more made every few months. Audio can be added to picture shows by synchronizing a phonograph player with the picture show mechanism. This is exceedingly complicated. A picture show, however, is fairly affordable for a civilian to watch, unlike a full stage production.

Sewers: Impel was not built where it is just as a coincidence. Impel used to be the site of a Lost World ruin, and the Adelians who founded it cleared the site, and then mostly ignored some important amenities there. Since the Intolerable War, renewed interest led to the discovery and study of an ancient, advanced sewer system beneath Impel. Houses can be connected to the system by the Artificer’s Guild, which maintains it at the behest of the governor’s office.

The Adelians have very vague ideas of how the system works, and how to effectively maintain it. But as with most Lost World things, they are canny enough to manage. The Impel Water System works using powerful geothermal water cycling and waste disposal, and a series of advanced filters that were miraculously undamaged by the cataclysm. Water and waste are drawn down by pipes that seem to go forever into a chasm, comes back up again to fuel the Adelian’s need for cleanliness. The Adelians have no idea where any of the wastes go, and the sewer system is barely explored, though a recent upswelling of curiosity has led to renewed expeditions into the sewer. Some Angel activity has been reported.

Many cities in Adel have some kind of foundation on Lost World architecture. Most people are unaware of this and just marvel at the fresh water, and the “easing houses” where they can peacefully relieve themselves. Those who do know, begrudgingly set aside their distrust of machines for the sake of this simple convenience.

Governor’s Estate: The vast estate of the governor boasts two large minnarets that can be seen almost anywhere in the city, as well as a vast and ornate cupola. A plaza surrounds the estate, which is known as the Eye of Impel, where the current governor and staff watch over the city in the Exalted Congress’ stead. Most towns have a mayor, but the larger cities have governors instead, and a large staff that can draft ordinances, and see to the requests of the citizens.

Airship Dock, Mobile Battlegroup Vehicle Yard, Riverside Port: Just outside the northern gate, the Airship Dock provides space for airships to land. It has a few raised concrete structures for airships to remain without touching ground, which they are not adequately built to do. A bit south of Impel, along the Yanya river, there is a very small port town called Shish, established essentially to funnel river trade up to Impel. Finally, just to the east of Impel, is a small village where the 5th Mobile Battlegroup “Gryphon” is established. The village is not only one of many food growers for Impel, it is also a specialty village where craftsfolk, once known for their ship building, work on building and consecrating vehicles for Gryphon. The villagers and Gryphon are both sworn to protect Impel, and the key strategic position that it occupies.

Thus, there are a lot of ways one might travel to Impel.

If you have any suggestions or curiosities for words that should be up here, ask away.

Everyday Speech

Namaste!: The most common greeting in Adel.

Spirits defend!: The most common exclamation in Adel. Can also be said like “spirits defend you” or “spirits defend us all” and such variations, again as a general exclamation in a variety of contexts. You might cry “Spirits defend!” when you are afraid and then when you are relieved, for example. It is quite versatile.

Spirits blight!: A common curse in Adel. Can be used by itself, or directed at someone or something, such as “spirits blight you!” or “spirits blight everything!” as a kind of exasperated expletive.

Spirits raise!: A common expression of gratitude or friendliness, directed at someone. “Spirits raise you,” for example. The inclusive form “spirits raise us all” is hardly ever used.

Bless: Basically a common affirmative response. Adelians still use “yes,” but Bless is a more formal word.

Rue: A common negative response. Adelians still use “no,” and especially words incorporating it such as “not” and “nothing” but Rue is a more formal word when you must decline or disagree.

Tail!: A cry for personal space, usually if someone bumps into you, or of course, touches your tail. Iomadi and Damakran have tails, but Cuporo and Droemedae don’t – regardless everyone uses the expression, since the Iomadi are the most prolific of the races, and they’ve propagated most of their figures of speech.

Professions And Ranks

Civil and Military

Villager: The average Adelian is a villager, living in the rural communes from which Adelian civilization began, and which are still its most widespread and prevalent expression. Villagers live in communities composed of tents or huts near natural resources which they carefully use and help propagate and care for. Most villages have contact with towns or even cities, so they know of the advancements society has made. They might even own a few useful technologies (everything in a village is owned by its Guardian Spirit and given to the villagers to use – it’s a sort of religious socialism), such as an autowagon, and they usually own guns and have their own (small) guard contingents. But they tend to prefer living within nature.

Arbiter: A lawyer of sorts, also doubling as a detective. Guards or soldiers and Arbiters work together to uphold the laws – a Guard alone can only arrest someone for a day, and an Arbiter can only make citizen’s arrests. But together they can bring someone to court for prosecution, or detain them longer than a day.

Alchemist: An herbalist or apothecary, making a living through the sale of useful and healthy potions and medicines. Each nation has a list of potions, ingredients and substances that can be made, drank, and traded, and there are quite a number of legal concoctions that a smart alchemist can make and sell for a decent living.

Bard: A general word for an artist, usually a performer, but can also mean a writer, or a painter.

Guard: A member of the local police and defense force. Because of their militarization after the Intolerable War, their police powers are split with the Arbiters to prevent corruption and injustice.

Pioneer: A military engineer. They drive and touch up vehicles, as well as plan out the layout of encampments, the positioning of emplacements and defenses, and the placement of any traps or obstacles.

Grenadier: The average infantry soldier. They tend to have a gun and a sword or mace, and dress in uniform with armored vests worn over it. The army requires initial three-year terms for all soldiers. A person who has served the initial term can become a guard, or leave the army with the ability to return later, at the same rank.

Sentinel: A heavily-armored infantry soldier. Can also refer to just the armored suit.

Magically-Inclined

Academy Mage: An arcane magic-user affiliated and licensed by an official arcane college. Without this affiliation, a mage is subject to more rules and restrictions on his or her magic use. With it, some restrictions are lifted, such as the ban on sales of exotic substances (potions), but the Academy must take responsibility for the wrong-doing of the mage. Many of these changes came about due to, basically, snake oil salesfolk tricking people in cities.

Student Mage: A Mage between 12 and 20 years old who has completed the basic curriculum of an arcane college, and has provisional status as an Academy Mage, but is not yet one in full. Most are kids.

Artificer: A licensed mechanical inventor, someone who has authorization from an academic institution that allows them to innovate and invent new machines. After creating something, they must fully describe to the authorities the rituals by which it was blessed and made safe to use, and what its purpose is, and submit to judgment.

Initiate: A new member of a religious organization, not yet fully capable of divine magic. Initiates are not allowed to wear robes that have sleeves on them, or that are too long, except in the winter.

Oblate: An established member of a religious organization, and allowed to travel on “pilgrimage” for certain established periods of time, to religious destinations all over the continent. Oblates can use magic.

Cherubim: An Initiate of the Seraphim. Cherubim are always girls (no biological males can become Seraphim) and usually between 9 and 16 years of age. They are strong and capable in many ways despite their age. They can do magic, they are about as athletic as the average adult if not more so, and they are quite resilient.

Seraphim: The only Order on Adel which can be considered knightly or paladin-like are the Seraphim, a storied organization in Sargasso where women undergo a powerful investment and swear to serve Sargasso. Seraphim are stronger, faster and more resilient than average folk, and have better magical ability and equipment.

Everyday Measurements

Though I don’t make it a point to use Adelian measurements in the articles, in my fiction stories I will use them since that is how Adelians talk. The measurements are not exact, but work out for the imagination.

Pebble: Each Pebble is roughly an ounce in our measurements.

Ore: Each Ore is roughly a pound (16 Pebbles) in our measurements.

Lode: Each Lode is a ton (2500 Ores) in our measurements.

Span: Each Span is roughly an inch in our measurements.

Step: Each Step is roughly a foot (12 spans) in our measurements.

Stride: Each Stride is roughly a yard (36 spans, 3 steps) in our measurements.

Wing: Each Wing is roughly half a mile in distance in our measurements (2500 or so steps).

Flight: Each Flight is roughly a mile in distance in our measurements (5000 or steps).

Horizon: Each Horizon is roughly 100 miles in distance in our measurements (500,000 or so steps).

Vehicles And Weapons

Arcane Engine: A magic engine design that works by burning arcane reagents, and generating raw “magic power” – kinetic force – that causes movement. Physically the engine is a box, with its sides carved in the shapes of certain necessary sigils, and its interior is made of three different ores. Rubbery “veins” transfer energy throughout the engine, and outside it. If the veins are cut, the engine will stop projecting energy through to whatever it was connected to.

Autowagon: Essentially a car, with significant variances. Adelians put the driver in the back of the car, regulating the arcane engine, and using a set of mirrors, or directions from passengers, to drive. The driver’s niche is a cramped space filled with knobs and pulleys and turn-wheels, and of course mirrors, that is not all that comfortable to work in. Autowagons are convenient, but difficult to drive and especially to turn. When you think of an Autowagon, don’t think of a Ford Model T or a modern car: think more an armored personnel carrier. Essentially a moving contoured box.

Golem: An Adelian Golem is any vehicle with a shape inspired by a biological lifeform, such as a legged walking vehicle. Golems are powered by arcane engines, but instead of using controls like an Autowagon or Landship, a Golem is magically-controlled by a Mage pilot, who moves the Golem as though it were his or her own body.

Landship: Essentially in our lingo a Landship would be a tank. It is a tracked armored vehicle made from exotic Adelian metals (though in a pinch, anything will do to make or reinforce one). The landship has a main body with a crew compartment, in which a crew controls the tank, and munitions are kept for the tank turret which has full 360 degree rotation. The back of the tank is vulnerable – the arcane engine is there, and shots that penetrate will cause it to burst in a small kinetic shockwave that will likely hurt the crew, though usually not outright kill them by itself. I imagine them to be modeled after World War 2 tank designs like the Tetrarch, Sherman and Tiger, but if you like other designs better you can imagine those. It essentially does not matter exactly what they look like, at least not more than their overall function.

The inside of the Landship is a cramped crew quarter with a lot of switches, pedals, wheel-levers, normal levers and the cannon opening and cannon-crank in the turret niche (pulling on it shoots the cannon). The Arcane Engines and driving mechanisms used in landships are a lot more complex than those in golems, because you can’t simply have a mage for every landship – you need normal, non-magic folk to control it with their hands and feet.

Airship: An Airship is any kind of flying vessel that is roughly inspired by a sailing vessel. Airships have simple convex shapes, seemingly rectangular but with a sloping front, about 75 degrees or so. The front slope has a cross-shaped steel mount through which the main cannon appears, and which helps to guide it. The top of an airship (the “deck”) has pillboxes and rails, but while the airship is flying the deck is only used to fight off boarding actions. Rather, the life of the crew occurs inside the airship’s compartments. Airships are powered by arcane engines, and if the force projectors (dish-like protrusions mounted outside the ship) are fatally damaged, the ship will lose altitude and eventually crash.

“25-Ore”: The Adelian designation for the power of a cannon. It refers to the size of the Shell it fires. 25-Ore cannons fire roughly 25 lb shells. That is about mid-range in land cannons. A portable cannon would be about 10-ore, while the cannon on a small landship or on an autowagon would be about 15-ore. The largest land vehicle cannons are 50-ore, on Heavy Landships. Artillery cannons could go up to 75-Ore, while the 100-ore cannon only exists on Airships.